Reprint review: Qest For Glory III: Wages of War
A review reprint form Questbusters magazine Russ Ceccolo Lori and Corey Cole took Sierra On-Line down a different path when they designed Quest for Glory I: So You Want To Be A Hero? (known then as Hero's Quest I). Games in this series combine traditional Sierra graphic adventure techniques with Role Playing Game (RPG) elements such as abilities and skills that directly affect your character's performance. The Coles also went out on a limb and designed the series so that players could choose to use a Fighter, Magic User or Thief, and the story and puzzles would be sufficiently different for each to make the game worthy of replay. All these elements worked well together, and the Quest for Glory series took off. Quest for Glory III: Wages of War continues the story line from the previous games, taking you to a land called Tarna in East Fricana. Here you must keep the peace between three tribes and discover what lies at the heart of the conflicts. Glory III works nicely as a stand-alone game, but also sets things up quite well for the next game in the quintology. Exotic setting Tarna is a place unlike any other seen before in computer games. With Egyptian and African overtones, it is a land rich in jungle settings and temples. You soon learn of a power struggle in Tarna. Only you can prevent a war between the Simbani, Leopardman and Liontaur tribes. You can almost feel the dirt beneath your feet. Glory III makes better use of the differences between the character types, and I strongly recommend replaying it. If you saved your character on disk from either preceding game, you will be able to import the character into Glory III. This is the only way to play as a Paladin. Otherwise, you must choose at the start from Magic User, Fighter or Thief. (A character, however, may attain Paladin status in this game.) Playing as a Magic User and Thief, I was required to think more, while the Fighter game appealed to my combative instincts. All three options offer worthwhile stories and unique perspectives. Ye interface Sierra's standard icon interface was augmented with more options and features than other Sierra adventures. In particular, character abilities and skills are unique to the QFG series and directly affect your character's ability to perform certain tasks. This aspect requires you to also find and solve the puzzles that Eash character has his or her own distinct and interactive personality. increase the skills and abilities. Keep an eye on your health, stamina and magic points, for these totals are very important in battle. A Special Actions icon bar offers more interesting options to round out your character. This icon bar has icons for running, sneaking and sleeping, as well as others that reveal your character stats and the current time and day in your adventure. Glory III is heavy on conversations with other characters you meet, and uses an intelligent conversation branching system with over 6,000 lines of dialog. You don't feel trapped in the conversations. You can ask about and tell about many choices to characters, similar to the flexible system the The Dagger of Amort Ra. The conversation branching is not as static as you might expect, and serves the important purpose of providing clues and teaching you about the characters and places in the game. A Famous Explorers' Correspondence Course booklet details East Fricana and Tarna with history. The villians have an unnerving way of practically popping out of the screen at you. monsters, hints and character suggestions. Read this interesting guide before you play the game! Graphics are some of the most impressive I've seen in from Sierra. Each scene has a grand feel to it, and the details stand out. Choices of color and scale are dead on, and the overall effect is captivating. The land of East Fricana comes to life unlike many games I've seen. Also contributing to this effect are the African-like music and crisp sound effects. The composers and sound effects people create the mood for each scene and carry this duty through to the end, emphasizing the most dramatic scenes throughout. Conclusions: Quest for Glory III is far more interesting and playable than either of its predecessors, with the exception of the VGA remake of QFG I. The Coles have hit their mark perfectly this time. They are sure to receive many letters from fans who were blown away by the story and puzzles. They took disparate elements of cultures and places, made them their own and combined them to form a neat new land fraught with equal parts of danger and fantasy. I look forward to the next game in the series, which will emphasize horror and monsters as its main elements. The Coles have a unique approach and vision in game design that works best in Quest for Glory III. * Category:Articles